Web Appendix

This Web Appendix consist of three parts (A-C). Part A includes tables that give an overview on the literature on single Solution Business-Specific Capabillities (SBSCs) and comprehensive categorizations of SBSCs and show how these relate to the capability elements that were empirically measured in the study. Part B consists of tables that provide information on the sample characteristics and the measurement model evaluation for the Solution Business Fitness (SBF) construct. Part C includes tables that give information on the analyses that were conducted to test the relation between SBF components and firm performance. The Web Appendix provides additional information (Tables) to the paper "Solution Business Fitness: Measuring and Managing Across Business Logics" by Kleinaltenkamp, M., Nenonen, S., Raithel, M., & Storbacka, K. published in the Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing

Sustainable supply chain management needs sustainable logistics services. The strategic role played by logistics service providers

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to examine the concept of sustainable service co-creation in triadic business relationships in logistics and supply chain management. More companies seek to develop sustainable solutions that would not be sustainable exclusively for themselves but for the supply chain they belong to. In doing that – especially when dealing with services – they may need the external support from logistics service providers (LSPs). This paper aims to explore the innovative initiatives undertaken by LSPs in triadic relationship management with their customers and suppliers while co-creating sustainable services along the supply chain. Design/methodology/approach – To investigate the research question, a systematic literature review and empirical exploratory investigation through case study will be conducted adopting the qualitative methodology, to explore trends and evolving paradigms. Findings – A literature review conducted in this paper enriches existing literature through an integration of sustainability in a viable system approach and logistics service provision, in particular, it investigates the ways in which sustainability is achieved. It is assumed that the triadic relationship among an LSP and its customers and suppliers requires significant modifications in collaboration and an innovative approach in operating procedures. Research limitations/implications – This paper is an exploratory study and limited in its scope to an example of a relationship that focuses mainly on three actors: the supplier, the LSP and the customer. However, it could be extended in terms of numbers of case studies investigated. Practical implications – The implications arising from the literature and the empirical research offer a range of current sustainable practices in the services sector. This could be a starting point for other research and company activities. Originality/value – There is little research that addresses the issue of sustainability and logistics service providers simultaneously, hence the present paper is meant to fill the gap by providing a foundation which actors of different supply chains could use as a benchmark. This study gives evidence of how logistics services may contribute to sustainable development. Key words – sustainable supply chain management, logistics service providers, viable system approach, co-creation, business relationship managemen

theoretical and empirical evidence from a business-to-business marketing perspective

Recently, integrating Transaction Cost Economic (TCE) and Resource Based View (RBV) arguments has become one of the most prominent theoretical approaches in research on business relationships. We question this dominance and strengthen an exclusive TCE perspective by recalling two of the core TCE constructs in order to achieve full exploitation of TCE reasoning. We discuss the transaction attributes “asset specificity” and “uncertainty” and identify conceptual gaps that lead to ambiguous results regarding the test of TCE guided hypotheses in prior relationship marketing and management research. To overcome these problems, we redefine both concepts and show that they are interconnected in more complex ways than past empirical research has accounted for. Hypotheses are derived and tested empirically in a cross-sectional online-survey setting by using means of structural equation modelling

How business customers judge solutions: solution quality and value in use

Many manufacturers look to business solutions to provide growth, but success is far from guaranteed, and how solutions can create superior perceived value is not clear. This article explores what constitutes value for customers from solutions over time, conceptualized as value-in-use, and how this arises from quality perceptions of the solution’s components. A framework for solution quality and value-in-use is developed through 36 interviews combining repertory grid technique and means-end chains. Significantly extending the extant view of quality as a function of the supplier’s products and services, findings show that customers also assess the quality of their own resources and processes, and of the joint resource integration process. Contrasting strongly with prior research, value-in-use corresponds not just to collective, organizational goals but also to individuals’ goals. Four moderators of the quality-value relationship demonstrate customer heterogeneity across both firms and roles within what the authors term the usage center. When shifting towards solutions, manufacturers require very different approaches to market research, account management, solution design and quality control, including the need for a value auditing process

Actor Ecosystem Readiness: Understanding the Nature and Role of Human Abilities and Motivation in a Service Ecosystem

Fueled by technological advances, service delivery today is increasingly realized among multiple actors beyond dyadic service encounters. Customers, for example, often collaborate with peers, service employees, platform providers, or other actors in a service ecosystem to realize desired outcomes. Yet such multi-actor settings pose greater demands for both customers and employees given added connectivity, changing roles, and responsibilities. Advancing prior dyadic readiness conceptualizations, this article lays the theoretical ground for an ecosystem-oriented understanding of readiness, which we refer to as actor ecosystem readiness (AER). Grounded in a six-stage systematic synthesis of literature from different disciplines, our AER concept unpacks the cognitive, emotional, interactional, and motivational conditions that enable a customer or an employee to navigate a service ecosystem effectively. Building on human capital resource literature, we propose a multilevel framework around five sets of propositions that theorize AER’s nomological interdependencies across ecosystem levels. In articulating the process of how AER results in higher-level ecosystem outcomes, we demonstrate how AER serves as a microfoundation of service ecosystem effectiveness. By bridging this micro–macro divide, our AER concept and framework advance multilevel theory on human readiness and critically refine the service ecosystem concept itself while providing managerial guidance and an extensive future research agenda

Institutional logics matter when coordinating resource integration

Resource integration has become an important concept in marketing literature. However, little is known about the systemic nature of resource integration and the ways the activities of resource integrators are coordinated and adjusted to each other. Therefore, we claim that institutions are the coordinating link that have impact on value cocreation efforts and are the reference base for customers’ value assessment. When conceptualizing the systemic nature of resource integration, we include the regulative, normative, and cognitive institutions and institutional logics. This article provides a framework and a structure for identifying and analyzing the influence of institutional logics on resource integration in service systems

Aligning resource integration and organizational identities in project networks

Purpose Multi-supplier project networks represent a large part of the business-to-business (B2B) sector as the scope of many projects requires that different providers participate in their development and delivery. This raises the question of how the integration of the resources of the various partners can be shaped successfully. Specifically, the different organizational identities provide institutional frames of reference to the resource-integrating firms. As the organizational identities are typically not harmonious with each other, at least partial misalignments of the institutional setting that shapes the resource integration processes may emerge. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of various organizational identities on the course and outcome of resource integration in project networks. Design/methodology/approach The paper makes use of interpretive phenomenology in conjunction with a qualitative case study approach to access the lived experience of actors of different professional service firms having experienced changes in resource integration in a B2B project network. Findings A conceptualization of organizational identity as an institutional context for resource integration is developed and empirically investigated. The findings show a strong impact on the firms' organizational identities and the actors' resource integration experience and evaluation. Moreover, the findings provide evidence that, if unmanaged, at least partial misalignment of the institutional arrangements of multi-organizational B2B project network represents a normal and also a stable condition. Originality/value As a first conceptualization and empirical analysis of the interplay between organizational identity and resource integration, this paper advances the current understanding of the institutional context for resource integration. It argues for the wider relevance of organizational identity constructs and paves the way for future development

Collective engagement in organizational settings

Customer engagement has emerged as a central concept in marketing. Despite extensive scholarly investigations and managerial interest though, considerations of customer engagement and emotional connections in business marketing have been scant. Researchers tend to focus on individual-level engagement, which is conceptually inadequate to address the inherently multi-actor nature of business-to-business marketing. Therefore, this article introduces the concept of collective engagement, highlighting both its characteristics and the conditions for its emergence. The resulting theoretical framework, with ten propositions, outlines the multidimensional nature of collective engagement, including its multiplicative aggregation, multidirectional valence, phenomenological and shared properties, emotional and institutional interdependence, and emergence in dynamic and multichannel settings. Collective engagement also offers a mechanism for considering emotions in business marketing, a topic that thus far has been largely ignored by the prevalent rational choice paradigm. Thus, this article contributes a systematic, coherent conceptualization of collective engagement and advances the theoretical domains of customer and actor engagement in particular and business-to-business research in general, while also suggesting a detailed research agenda.</p